# Everyone knows who Hillary Clinton is.. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 1, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714 "2005-02-01T02:23:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/1 "2005-02-01T02:23:20Z")
Why does the news insist on calling her Hillary Rodham Clinton? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/2 "2005-02-01T02:28:06Z")
Perhaps because [she wants people to address her by her full name](http://clinton.senate.gov/). ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/3 "2005-02-01T02:36:11Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Perhaps because [she wants people to address her by her full name](http://clinton.senate.gov/). I looked, but I must have missed the part where it said “Call me this” My mistake? ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/4 "2005-02-01T02:36:33Z")
I would surmise that it’s because _that’s her name_. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/5 "2005-02-01T02:40:05Z")
> [@GingerOfTheNorth](#): > > I would surmise that it’s because _that’s her name_. No argument from me. Ss I guess we will call Bill Clinton…William Jefferson Clinton from now on. Right? ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/6 "2005-02-01T02:46:01Z")
Is she or are the news media trying to distance her from her husband? ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/7 "2005-02-01T02:51:10Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > Is she or are the news media trying to distance her from her husband? I think she might be. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/8 "2005-02-01T02:57:25Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > No argument from me. > > Ss I guess we will call Bill Clinton…William Jefferson Clinton from now on. > > Right? I noticed that during Clinton’s term in office, I remember hearing Republicans or allied commentators doing exactly that. It always felt to me like there was an unspoken “The Defendant” prepended to the usage, as if they were savoring his legal woes at that time. I suppose it was more palatable to them than “President Clinton.” ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/9 "2005-02-01T02:58:20Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > I looked, but I must have missed the part where it said “Call me this” > > My mistake? One might think when her official Senate web site has her name as _Hillary Rodham Clinton_ it probably is a good guess that’s the name she wants to be addressed. ---
**Author:** ![elfbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b782af/32.png) [@elfbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfbabe)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/10 "2005-02-01T03:06:32Z")
I think she’s been referred to as Hillary Rodham Clinton for a long time now. A lot of women whose professional careers began before their marriages do this… ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/11 "2005-02-01T03:22:59Z")
Didn’t she make it very clear, after Clinton was elected to his second term, that she wanted to be called HRC? Her official website makes it clear that she wished to use her full name. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/12 "2005-02-01T03:23:18Z")
> [@NattoGuy](#): > > I noticed that during Clinton’s term in office, I remember hearing Republicans or allied commentators doing exactly that [calling him “William Jefferson Clinton”]. It always felt to me like there was an unspoken “The Defendant” prepended to the usage, as if they were savoring his legal woes at that time. I suppose it was more palatable to them than “President Clinton.” Of course, this works both ways – I can remember Shirley Chisholm, after she had won delegates but ultimately lost the race for the presidential nomination to George McGovern at the 1972 Democratic\* National Convention, saying that “We must work together to defeat the incumbent, Richard Milhous Nixon.” I’m not sure if I knew what “incumbent” meant then (I was not quite 13 years old), but I remember she made the word sound like a synonym for “brigand” or “blackguard”. \*of course, the GOP stalwarts refer to such proceedings as **Democrat** conventions, as a good Republican certainly feels he or she espouses **democratic** principles! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/13 "2005-02-01T03:25:44Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Didn’t she make it very clear, after Clinton was elected to his second term, that she wanted to be called HRC? Her official website makes it clear that she wished to use her full name. IIRC, she made the change back in 1992, when they realized that a first lady had to have the last name of her husband. She had been calling herself, quite properly, Hillary Rodham, but made the change to Hillary Rodham Clinton to placate the yahoos. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/14 "2005-02-01T03:34:05Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > Is she or are the news media trying to distance her from her husband? As regards herself, absent a direct quote or other evidence any answer would of course be speculation beyond the scope of this forum. As regards the media, pretty much every mainstream press outlet has a style guide (n.b.: many use the same guide, the two biggies being the AP and the Chicago Manual of Style and others ape the Times’, even though I don’t think they publish it) and each of these style guides specify that news stories are to produce persons’ names as they choose within reason. So if Chuck Grassley preferred to be known as Charles, or if Russell Feingold hated “Russ” the major media outlets would comply, not only on their news pages but in editorials too. The same is true of Senator Clinton. I’m quite confident that the major outlets have called her office and asked how she prefers to be known. Note “within reason.” I suppose if Senator McCain woke up one morning and announced that he wanted to be known as “Johnny Mack” or if Ohio’s junior Senator wanted to be called “G-Vo” there might be a crisis in style rooms all over the media. Happily, that has not yet occurred to my knowledge. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/15 "2005-02-01T04:19:22Z")
I checked through 1992 LA Times articles about the campaign. For the most part during that campaign, that paper used Hillary Clinton. There were occasional first references to Hillary Rodham Clinton. As the years went on, there were more uses of Hillary Rodham Clinton. When Bill Clinton was first elected governor of Arkansas, she was just Hillary Rodham. She did not add Clinton until her husband’s return to office after being defeated in his first reelection bid. ---
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/16 "2005-02-01T04:27:02Z")
My assumption has always been that Hillary dropped the Rodham before the first presidential campaign because Clinton’s opponents might try to use Hillary’s retention of her own name against her: “Look! Clinton’s wife’s one of them-there feminazis!” Once Clinton was elected president, Hillary could revert to “Rodham.” ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/17 "2005-02-01T04:52:52Z")
It appears that NY Times style now is to refer to her as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on first reference and Mrs. Clinton on subsequent references. I don’t find any paper that refers to her as “Senator Rodham Clinton” or “Mrs. Rodham Clinton” on second reference. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/18 "2005-02-01T06:41:35Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Didn’t she make it very clear, after Clinton was elected to his second term, that she wanted to be called HRC? Her official website makes it clear that she wished to use her full name. IIRC, until he began campaigning for president, she went as Hilary Rodham. She only became Hilary Clinton when he went national. I seem to remember some official-ish announcement sometime after the election that she was going by all three names. It’s been a long time, though. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/19 "2005-02-01T06:54:02Z")
No, she was Hillary Clinton or Hillary Rodham Clinton during Bill Clinton’s stint as governor of Arkansas from 1982 to 1992. She was Hillary Rodham during his first term from 1978 to 1980, but she felt that the voters of Arkansas didn’t like that so she switched to Clinton. ---
**Author:** ![MinniePurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@MinniePurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MinniePurl)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714/20 "2005-02-01T08:37:46Z")
> [@BobT](#): > > It appears that NY Times style now is to refer to her as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on first reference and Mrs. Clinton on subsequent references. I don’t find any paper that refers to her as “Senator Rodham Clinton” or “Mrs. Rodham Clinton” on second reference. Why does the NYT call her MRS. Clinton on second reference? At first this seemed disrespectful, as other CongressCritters seem to get called Sen. SoandSo or Rep. Whatsherface on second reference. But then I noticed that various Heads of State are called Mr. on second reference-- Mr. Bush, Mr. Chiriac, Mr. Mubarak, etc. Does HRC get the Mrs. because she’s a former first lady? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-who-hillary-clinton-is/287714.md?page=2)